Female Scientists Parody Sexist ‘Science: It’s A Girl Thing’ PSA

In case you don’t remember that laughably sexist and undeniably offensive “Science: It’s A Girl Thing” video we told you about over the summer, here’s a quick refresher: Females account for 45 percent of all PhD’s earned in Europe, but only (roughly) a third of researchers–so the EU decided to create a three-year campaign targeted at girls aged 13 to 17 in order to make science seem “cool”, thereby encouraging them to consider careers in the field.

A progressive and legitimately respectable plan, right? Unfortunately, the video itself was anything but. Take a look at the original in all its pink, sparkly glory:

Now, a group of real, living, breathing female PhD candidates in neuropsychology at the University of Bristol (who don’t actually spend all day pouring colorful liquid form one beaker into another while male scientists gawk at them) decided to channel their outrage at having their serious career paths represented by lipstick and stillettos into a hilarious parody of the EU’s lambasted PSA.

One of the students, Suzi Gage, said: “We made the video mainly for fun, but also because the original was so awful. It was really demeaning to women, and contained no science at all—just make-up. ”

The sad thing is that the parody isn’t really that far off from the original. While we may have come a long way, ladies, many Don Draper-esque ad men out there still believe that we see ourselves they way they see us: coveting beauty first and brains second.

What could have (and should have) been an inspiring and forward-thinking campaign telling girls that they’re capable of anything just served to remind them (yet again) that while they can aspire to anything, their greatest aspiration should be earning the attention of the opposite sex. But thankfully, this parody reminds us that women have the ability to not only (literally) laugh in the face of that age-old message, but also shape the future of science while doing it.